Kantate, BWV 88 "Siehe, ich will viel Fischer aussenden"

Johann Sebastian Bach composed the church cantata Siehe, ich will viel Fischer aussenden (Behold, I will send out many fishers), BWV 88 in Leipzig for the fifth Sunday after Trinity within the liturgical year and first performed it on 21 July 1726.

Bach composed the cantata after several complete cantata cycles written in Leipzig for the occasions of the liturgical year. The cantata text resembles works which his second cousin Johann Ludwig Bach set to music. Based on the prescribed gospel reading of the great catch of fish, an unknown librettist based his poetry on quotations from the Old Testament in the opening movement and the New Testament as the central movement, and closed it by the final stanza of Georg Neumark's hymn "Wer nur den lieben Gott läßt walten". The cantata is structured in seven movements in two parts (three and four movements), to be performed before and after the sermon. It is scored for an intimate ensemble of four vocal soloists, a choir only in the chorale, two horns, two oboes d'amore, taille, strings and continuo. The central movement is composed as a biblical scene, with the Evangelist introducing Jesus sending Peter, a fisherman, to "fish" men.